Dryer hookup question

Hello, so i started out with a 3 prong straight plug pictured below that was stamped as a 50a-125/250V.

My dryer had the L shaped prong so i purchased a new one pictured below. I wasn't 100% sure if there was anything else i needed to do since this was listed as a 30A-125/250V vs the original 50A. Being probably somewhat stupid... i just hooked it up and cautiously turned it on to see what happened... well, nothing blew up or sparked or caught fire so i thought we were good. Unfortunately the dryer's ability to heat the air gave out about 3 or 4 days later after only a couple loads... After attempting and failing to fix it we just picked up a used one. However, i want to make sure that what i did originally wasn't the cause of the dryer dying in the first place! Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Dryer hookup question

I didn't think so... Yeah, i should have posted this along with everything else... This box is right above the outlet. Sorry these are all sideways. This is the other reason i figured i was good to go since it matched the new outlet...

Dryer hookup question

so, funny story... i opened up that box and guess what i found... fuses! one of which was blown... so chances are there was nothing wrong with the stupid dryer all this time. Well, at least not what i thought anyway. /sigh

Dryer hookup question

Quote:

Originally Posted by epsilon

so, funny story... i opened up that box and guess what i found... fuses! one of which was blown... so chances are there was nothing wrong with the stupid dryer all this time. Well, at least not what i thought anyway. /sigh

More likely there was something wrong, which caused the fuse to blow. Most likely the heating element burned out and one half of it shorted to ground. When you replace those fuses, replace them with 30A fuses to match the new receptacle you installed.

In the future, just replace the cord on the appliance instead of the receptacle. That's the normal way to deal with a mismatch.